Debenhams boohoo refuse money refund

Bazaar17

Hi all, just as a warning and also to see if I’m doing things correctly. Wife purchased items from Debenhams, they weren’t suitable, so tried to start a return, the return e mail didn’t contain a return label, but when online it said take the qr code and return via local collection point, didn’t work after trying 3 seperate times. Then had a run around with their “customer service” team to get a new return label, items have gone back. Now they’ve said that we opted for a gift voucher, (we were unaware that they default the return as a gift voucher) very underhand IMHO. We have since asked for a proper refund but they’ve refused. Also they refuse to provide an address to file a complaint and most likely to file a money claim. What is the best option here? We are thinking of going to our bank and file a charge back to our debit card, if that’s refused we will have to go via Northampton, apologies for the long post, but really be aware of what this company is putting people through

UnsureAboutthis

You opted for a refund, unwittingly but they have a point
As to them "refusing" to give you the "address" re "complaint," I find that staggering.

often a customer services is the first point of formal complaint

customerservices@debenhams.co.uk

sheramber

Company address available on Companies House   BOOHOO.COM  LTD

Bazaar17

UnsureAboutthis said:

You opted for a refund, unwittingly but they have a point
As to them "refusing" to give you the "address" re "complaint," I find that staggering.

often a customer services is the first point of formal complaint

customerservices@debenhams.co.uk

I didn’t “opt” for a voucher, they’ve told us after the fact that it’s set as a default, so if you don’t notice (I can’t say I even saw that option when making the return), most likely hidden in the web page. Anyway, we’ve asked for a refund and they’ve refused as they reckon they can’t alter it, which does seem very shady indeed

Bazaar17

I have asked for a fourth time now and this is their response, does anyone feel this is an answer to provide an address? Appreciate that you want an address for complaint xxxxxx Please be advised that all complaints are handled here in customer service. Once a preferred refund method has been selected, we’re unable to change this or reset the return. In this case, the refund will be issued to a gift voucher as soon as the return is received and scanned at our warehouse. We would therefore be unable to assist further with this query and would deem this matter as closed.

Kind Regards,

- Antonette

A_Geordie

I think first of all you need to get your facts straight before you choose the path your wife want to take.

Debenhams and Boohoo are two separate companies, so who did she contract with? Debenhams allow other brands to sell their clothes on their website (Debenhams call them Concessionaire Brands) so the contract will either be with Debenhams or Boohoo, not both.

Assuming it is Debenhams, the returns policy says that if you process the return through the returns portal, you have the option to select store credit instead of a cash refund. If this is how the returns was completed, then you would have had to explicitly select the option for cash or store credit, so it's unclear how this would be very underhand by Debenhams instead of your wife not fully reading the process and what she was going to be receiving, but only she can confirm that. 

That said, if there was no option in the portal other than store credit or if Debenhams processed the return on your wife's behalf and selected store credit without her consent, then that would be in breach of the law as to her consumer rights because she is entitled to a refund using the same method she paid, unless she agrees otherwise.

As for doing a chargeback, I am not convinced she will get very far with that process other than wasting her time as it is not a forum to argue your consumer rights since the chargeback process has a very spefic set of reasons that you need to claim under. I suspect that reason code the bank will process the claim under is "cancelled goods/services" or "credit not received". All Debenhams need to do is to show a gift voucher was issued to your wife as evidence that a refund has been processed and then case likely to be closed.

Legal proceedings sounds like the more sensible method here but your wife does need to make sure she has the right set of facts or it may get very costly for her.

Edit: 

Bazaar17 said:

I have asked for a fourth time now and this is their response, does anyone feel this is an answer to provide an address? Appreciate that you want an address for complaint xxxxxx Please be advised that all complaints are handled here in customer service. Once a preferred refund method has been selected, we’re unable to change this or reset the return. In this case, the refund will be issued to a gift voucher as soon as the return is received and scanned at our warehouse. We would therefore be unable to assist further with this query and would deem this matter as closed.

Kind Regards,

- Antonette

There is no legal requirement for a company to provide an address to handle complaints. That's what you have been told so either accept it and start the next stage of the dispute or keep bouncing back and forwards with a low level customer service employee.

Okell

A_Geordie said:

... Assuming it is Debenhams, the returns policy says that if you process the return through the returns portal, you have the option to select store credit instead of a cash refund. If this is how the returns was completed, then you would have had to explicitly select the option for cash or store credit, so it's unclear how this would be very underhand by Debenhams instead of your wife not fully reading the process and what she was going to be receiving, but only she can confirm that. 

That said, if there was no option in the portal other than store credit or if Debenhams processed the return on your wife's behalf and selected store credit without her consent, then that would be in breach of the law as to her consumer rights because she is entitled to a refund using the same method she paid, unless she agrees otherwise...

Although Debenhams' returns information does say that they give the consumer a "choice" between store credit or cash, what if either:

(a) their returns portal is set up to default to store credit unless you choose cash, rather than give you the opportunity to exercise a deliberate choice, or 

(b) their portal uses those stupid "radio buttons" where you might think you've made a deliberate choice of cash over credit, but unless you've clicked elsewhere the choice changes to credit when you move the cursor,

and in both (a) and (b) you do not notice.

Would either of those be likely to be construed as agreement for the purposes of the CRA?

Having said that, I think Debenhams' T&Cs are actually very clear overall, and particularly with respect to cancellation.

I agree chargeback is likely to get nowhere.

A_Geordie

Okell said:

Although Debenhams' returns information does say that they give the consumer a "choice" between store credit or cash, what if either:

(a) their returns portal is set up to default to store credit unless you choose cash, rather than give you the opportunity to exercise a deliberate choice, or 

(b) their portal uses those stupid "radio buttons" where you might think you've made a deliberate choice of cash over credit, but unless you've clicked elsewhere the choice changes to credit when you move the cursor,

and in both (a) and (b) you do not notice.

Would either of those be likely to be construed as agreement for the purposes of the CRA?

The regs only stipulate that the refund must be by the same method unless the consumer expressly agrees otherwise (verbal agreement or in a written medium), but it doesn't go beyond that. I think if one were to say that pre-selecting an option more favourable or the kind of HTML form controls to be used by traders, then in my opinion it goes far beyond what the regs envisaged and a court would effectively be re-writing the legislation. 

If the intention of parliament was to put controls or limitations on the process of refunds then it would have been made explicit in the regulations. Take the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations that requires consent to the GDPR standard for electronic marketing communications e.g. it must be freely given (voluntary), specific and informed consent hence, and which is why case law has determined that pre-selected boxes for marketing comms are not valid consent. Nothing of the sort even is mentioned in the regs.

In my opinion, a pre-selected option agreeing to a refund other than the same payment method would on the face of it constitute express agreement. I suppose its rebuttable if the trader is using some kind of dark pattern to manipulate to consumer then it might not be considered a valid express agreement. However, it's not so different to a court's reluctance to interfere if a consumer chose to not read the T&Cs but went ahead with the transaction anyway. If the OP's wife decided to blast through the process without reading anything - especially if at the end of the process there's a summary that explains the refund will be store credit and not cash - then there I think there is very little chance of any success in court. 

born_again

Would be a easy rejection of chargeback, given they have offered a refund.
That is of course they contest it. But retailer could then go legal to reclaim the chargeback refund.

Bazaar17

Thanks for the time to look into this to all, here is the statement from Debenhams “Please be informed that the returns portal is set to default for the refund to be on gift voucher but it also provides options for receiving a refund either as a gift voucher or through the payment method originally used.” so you have to make a conscious effort to choose original payment option, we will look further but also filed a complaint, that will most likely go unanswered, will post back once we receive notification of payment

A_Geordie

Good luck, but by the sound of it, there has been a user error rather than an error by Debenhams.